French media report that a fire in an apartment building in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb on Lyon in France, has killed 10 people, of whom five were children, and severely injured four more. 11 others were less seriously injured, including two firefighters.

The fire was reported at about three in the morning, in a seven-storey social housing block. According to the fire chief, David Annotel, the fire started on the ground floor and rapidly spread to the fourth storey. 170 firefighters in 65 vehicles attended the scene. The Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, and the Minister for Town and Housing, Olivier Klein, came to see what had happened.

As yet no theories for how the fire started and spread have been given. What we do know is that in France there are no requirements to fit sprinklers in residential buildings. We also know that there have never been multiple victims from a fire in a residential building that was fitted with sprinklers. This includes huge facade fires in sprinklered high-rise buildings in Dubai, Turkey and Australia.